The trick comes down to cycling between the settings (shutter and F) while the indicator is still flashing - don't wait for it to stay steady, at that point the camera has readjusted and lost your previous setting. If you choose what you want, then cycle to the next setting, then cycle again all while the indicator is still blinking (about .5-1.0 seconds between each toggle), you've got locked manual control.

This camera is a lot like Blender (www.blender3d.org). Great potential and usability, horrible interface and documentation.

<<<-- Originally posted by Ken Hodson : This good news guys. Thanks for pushing forward on this topic Gabriele, we seem to be making headway. I will be doing some more testing of my own this weekend using some software that allows variable zebra monitoring that will help detect any exposure flux. -->>>

But I was wrong for confirming the manual lock. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

Do this:

1.) Put the HD1/10 on a tripod indoors and point it toward a window in daylight.

2.) Let the camera stabilize for 1 minute. The significance of this will become apparent later.

3.) Toggle the S/A button to read the current shutter and aperture, for now assume it was 1/250 - f5.6.

4.) Manually set the shutter to 1/30 second, and then immediately lock the exposure.

5.) While watching the LCD screen, toggle the S/A button repeatedly.

*****************************************

While the exposure is locked, note how the scene in the LCD gradually fades to dark. At the same time, note how the readout for the shutter speed is gradually returning to 1/250.....first 1/30...then 1/60...1/100...1/125...1/250, as the picture gets darker.

What I observed, is that when the lighting in a scene changes, the aperture responds almost instantly, while the shutter responds much more slowly, taking perhaps 20 seconds or more (depending on the ambient light) to swing from 1/30 - 1/250 sec.

There are several ways to observe this tendency. Another way is to put the camera into aperture priority, and point it at the same window on the tripod, but with the lens cap on, or your hand in front. Remove the lens cap and looking at the LCD observe how slowly the shutter responds before the exposure is correct again.

I can point the camera set at f2.8 1/60th at a bright window (where the "correct" exposure would be f16 1/250th) and cycle repeatedly with the S/A button (20 times or so, over a 2-minute period) and nothing budges!

Each time, the readout says 1/60 and f2.8, and the viewfinder stays heavily overexposed.

I'm cycling quite fast - I just glance at the number then move on immediately...

As you know, you cannot lock the exposure while you are in shutter or aperture priority mode, you have to exit first.

Whenever you exit shutter or aperture mode, before going into exposure lock it won't remain at the shutter/aperture setting you chose unless it wanted to be there in the first place, in auto.

Consider the following example. The camera is stabilized, and you toggle the S/A button and get this readout 1/125 - f5.6. When you lock the exposure, it will *stay locked* if it was stabilized there when you locked it. You can put the lens cap on, or point the camera at the sun, regardless...the exposure remains locked.

But if you were trying to spoof the camera to a 1/60 shutter speed using the Gabriele trick immediately before locking the exposure, followed by toggling of the S/A button for confirmation, you could be tricking yourself. Because while the shutter speed readout may appear to have locked at 1/60 sec the first time you looked, you wouldn't notice that it was continuing to revert because it was happening so slowly.

So over the course of 20 seconds if you repeat the confirmation check, you will confirm that the shutter did not remain locked and was changing...1/60...then 1/100...then 1/125 and so on.

To summarize, ONLY if the camera was stabilized in AUTO (and not making the slow climb up the curve while exiting from shutter priority mode), will the exposure remain locked.

2.) >>>I can point the camera set at f2.8 1/60th at a bright window (where the "correct" exposure would be f16 1/250th) and cycle repeatedly with the S/A button (20 times or so, over a 2-minute period) and nothing budges! <<<

Right! But that's because you had the camera locked at f2.8 1/60th *before* you pointed it at the window. Yes, it stays locked in that circumstance.

But reverse the order. Point it at the bright window *first* (on a tripod), and try getting it to lock at 1/60th.

<<<-- Originally posted by Graham Hickling :Each time, the readout says 1/60 and f2.8, and the viewfinder stays heavily overexposed.
-->>>

But consider Graham, the object is not to be able to simply lock the incorrect exposure, it is to be able to lock the *shutter* to the correct exposure that won't change when you pan.

So in your example, you succeeding in locking the shutter and not having the exposure change when you panned, but you failed in that the window was overexposed. Do you see the difference?

So what you need to make happen, is to achieve a 1/60th shutter and correct exposure while pointed at the bright window (which is the scene), and then have it go underexposed when you pan away from the scene.

>> To summarize, ONLY if the camera was stabilized in AUTO (and not making the slow climb up the curve while exiting from shutter priority mode), will the exposure remain locked.

I see this requirement as part of the method: the exposure has to be 'correct' - from the camera's perspective - at the moment it gets locked. That's kinda what I was getting at in an earlier post:

>>When you first lock the shutter, it has to be at a speed where the camera can achieve correct exposure with an available f-stop (i.e. somewhere between f1.8 and f22).

The way I work, I begin by pointing the camera at a part of the scene that suits an 'averaged' exposure. I then set 1/60th manually, lock the f-stop, and re-orient the camera to the angle that I actually want to film (which might be back-lit, in shadow, or whatever).

<<<-- Originally posted by Graham Hickling :
>>When you first lock the shutter, it has to be at a speed where the camera can achieve correct exposure with an available f-stop (i.e. somewhere between f1.8 and f22).

The way I work, I begin by pointing the camera at a part of the scene that suits an 'averaged' exposure. I then set 1/60th manually, lock the f-stop, and re-orient the camera to the angle that I actually want to film (which might be back-lit, in shadow, or whatever). -->>>

But what if you don't want an averaged exposure?

Assume for example, I want to shoot a scene in bright daylight at 1/60th, and I have some ND so that my aperture is within the working latitude of the exposure, lets say f16. I want my scene perfectly exposed in the bright area where my subjects are, and when I pan into the shadows where my subjects aren't, I want it to go dark (underexposed) instead of trying to achieve some averaged exposure that falls halfway between the bright scene and the shadows?

In this instance, I'm not able to lock exposure onto the bright scene at 1/60th, unless I first lock the camera exposure onto a darker part of the scene where my subjects aren't, causing them to be overexposed in the brighter scene.

So while I understand what you are saying with your technique for exposing for the average scene, if the objective is for exposing for the bright scene, then not being able to lock the shutter and exposure for the bright part of the scene reveals the limitation.

>>Assume for example, I want to shoot a scene in bright daylight at 1/60th, and I have some ND so that my aperture is within the working latitude of the exposure, lets say f16. I want my scene perfectly exposed in the bright area where my subjects are, and when I pan into the shadows where my subjects aren't, I want it to go dark

I would set the shutter to 1/60 and then adjust my angle/position so that brightly-lit parts of the scene filled most of the viewfinder (at which point the camera will set itself to f16 or thereabouts). Then I lock the exposure using Gabriele's method. Then I compose the actual shot I'm after.

(And if I need to confirm my settings, I can cycle the S/A button to be sure that the camera is still locked on 1/60, f16, regardless of whether I'm filming the bright or shadow part of my scene).

Certainly this is a fudge - but I find it a very workable way to get around exactly the killer problem that you used as your example - of the exposure opening up when I pan into a shadowed area.

>>In this instance, I'm not able to lock exposure onto the bright scene at 1/60th, unless I first lock the camera exposure onto a darker part of the scene